The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office is preparing to vacate and seal thousands of marijuana possession convictions in light of voters legalizing marijuana in 2012.

Boulder County Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner said the DA’s office took a look back through its records and identified about 4,000 marijuana possession convictions since 2008 that would no longer be crimes with the passage of Amendment 64.

While the office pulled numbers from 2008 as a starting point and to get an idea of how many possession cases were being processed every year pre-Amendment 64, Kupfner said the goal is to eventually clear older convictions as well.

“This is really a program based on fundamental fairness,” Kupfner said. “This is conduct that is no longer illegal. It just seems like the right thing to do in these circumstances is to vacate and seal those convictions.”

Convictions for possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana or 1 ounce of marijuana as well as paraphernalia charges will qualify under the new program. Kupfner said possession with intent to distribute cases will not qualify, and cases that include additional charges will not be considered.

Prosecutors and investigators on Friday detailed the rising tensions between the two neighbors, a combative relationship that ended with the fatal shooting of the 46-year-old Cunningham, an assistant high school principal in Aurora and former University of Colorado football star.